


Playlist Name (Just Love Me Already)

by MissMR



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Maybe a little angst, Pining Clarke, clarke is best friends with everyone, dancing on your own, i really love those two songs, jessie's girl or echo's man, mentions of becho, this is as much fluff i think i can write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:00:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22805260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissMR/pseuds/MissMR
Summary: “What Avril Lavigne and the Pussycat Dolls didn’t make the cut this time around?”Clarke scoffs. “That’s way too juvenile.”“And the whole playlist itself isn’t?” Octavia smirks, and Clarke can’t hold back her smile.Octavia hands her back the phone with a sigh. “You have it bad, don’t you?”“Maybe a little,” Clarke says as she slumps against her dresser. “I swear I had no idea I felt like this.”“You know,” Octavia starts and takes a spot next to Clarke, “you could say something to him.”(Or, Clarke has such intense feelings that she doesn't know how to deal with them so she makes a playlist, but all her friends know exactly what her playlist means.)
Relationships: Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin
Comments: 5
Kudos: 124





	Playlist Name (Just Love Me Already)

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, this has been sitting in my unfinished pile of fanfics for a little over a month. I have no idea how this came to be. But I hope you enjoy!

Clarke lost track of the number of times she listened to her _just love me already_ playlist, but her roommate certainly hasn’t because she burst through Clarke’s bedroom door shouting, “Enough already” that makes Clarke jump.

“Fuck, Raven! Knock first.”

“Even if I did, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be able to hear me over your damn music.” Raven limps her way to Clarke’s dresser to turn down her speaker.

Clarke has known Raven for almost three years, and she still doesn’t know exactly how Raven hurt her leg. She knew it had something to do with an accident, and Raven vaguely mentioned it was her mom that was driving after she had had a drink or two. Clarke could fill in the blanks, and she thought about asking Raven, but Raven is always quick to change the subject with the topic of her mom comes up. 

“You’ve been listening to the same songs for the past two months. I’m tired of it. I mean just tell him how you feel already.” Raven drops herself on the foot of Clarke’s bed and adjusts her brace, and Clarke tries her best to ignore her because Raven hates it when people look at her with sympathy when it’s in regards to her leg.

“You see I’ve thought about it, but there's just a little problem,” Clarke plops her paintbrush in the dirty water paint and looks at Raven, “he has a girlfriend.”

The words left her mouth just as _Hard to Handle by the Black Crowes_ starts to play, and Raven rolls her eyes.

“Seriously?”

“What? It’s a good song.”

Raven snatches Clarke’s phone from the nightstand. “Let me see what other songs you have on here.”

“You should know since you said I’m playing the same songs over and over again.” Clarke wipes her hands on her a smock, and Raven ignores what Clarke said and starts listing out the songs.

_I’m the Only One by Melissa Etheridge. I’m Not Gonna Teach Boyfriend How to Dance with You by Black Kids. I Will Wait By Mumford and Sons. Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper. Leave Your Lover by Echos. Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac. I’ll Be Waiting by Lenny Kravitz._

Raven starts to laugh. “You seriously have You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift on here.”

“Duh. I can’t have a playlist that is literally made up of songs about waiting for the person I’m crushing on and wanting him to leave his girlfriend and not have Taylor Swift on it.” Clarke shrugs. “She’s my guilty pleasure.”

“I do think you should still tell Bellamy how you feel.”

Clarke shakes her head as she holds out her hand for the phone. “Not going to happen. He’s with Echo.”

“So, what? You’re just going to listen to your sad playlist until you stop pining?”

“I do not pine.”

“Babe, you stare hopelessly at him whenever you’re around him. You’re pining.”

“Whatever,” Raven smirks and gets up to leave the room closing the door behind her just as _Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield_ starts to play, and there was no way in hell Clarke will ever admit to Raven or anybody for that matter she has sometimes (more often than not) sang Echo’s man instead of Jessie’s girl.

* * *

It’s less than a week later that Clarke’s playlist had become the topic of conversation again because she loses herself in her painting with music echoing off the walls. Raven has already left for work, and Clarke decided to take a day to herself, playing her _‘sad’_ playlist as loud as she wants. There’s nothing that needs her attention in the studio, so she takes advantage and paints something for herself.

“ _Somebody said you got a new friend. Does she love you better than I can,”_ Clarke sings along to _Robyn’s Dancing On My Own_ as she mixes colors on her palette.

She’s aware that it might be a little pathetic that she has found comfort in a playlist that is composed up of songs that are essentially about being hopeless in love with someone. She hasn’t done something like this since high school when she had a massive crush on Lexa Trikru, but Lexa only eyes for Costia Forester.

There’s something about music that lets Clarke say what she wants to say without directly saying it. To some, she’s only singing along to a song, but Clarke knows she’s singing her feelings for everyone to know. And, it’s not always the smartest thing.

Sometimes people catch on. Like Raven did with Clarke’s hopeless crush (little more than a crush, but she isn’t ready to admit that out loud) on Bellamy.

Clarke has her feelings under control. Not even Octavia knows, who is one of few who knows Clarke sometimes better than she knew herself considering they’ve been best friends since middle school. But if Raven caught on, Clarke knows it’s only a matter of time before Octavia notices, and Clarke has no idea how Octavia will react to her best friend having a thing for her older brother.

But everything changed two and a half months ago when Bellamy showed up to game night with a new girlfriend. No one even knew he was dating, and Clarke wasn’t even aware of her feelings until he showed up with someone.

She ignored the way her she’d get excited whenever his name was mentioned. Or the way she always hoped his hugs would last a moment longer once he let her go. Or the way she blushed whenever he complimented her. Or the way her heart sometimes raced just at the thought of him. She ignored all of this until he walked in through Jasper’s door pulling a beautiful brunette behind him, and she felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach and the ache in her chest was something she could pretend wasn’t there.

Clarke moves through the chorus and starts to sing the next verse, _“I’m just gonna dance all night.”_ She touches the paintbrush to the canvas creating a swirl of purple as she moves to the song.

 _“I’m all messed up, I’m so outta line.”_ Clarke flings blue paint at the canvas as she sings the line.

 _“Stilettos on broken bottles. I’m spinning around in circles.”_ Clarke twirls around with her head held high and her eyes closed, and that’s when she hears someone laughing.

Clarke’s eyes snap open only to see Octavia leaning against the wall closest to the door.

“Oh, don’t stop on my account. I was enjoying the show.”

Clarke sticks her tongue out, reaching for her phone to pause the music.

“How’d you get in?” Clarkes asks, and Octavia holds up her keys. “I gave you that for emergencies.”

“Yeah. Well, I have time to kill before I meet Lincoln for dinner, and your apartment’s closer.” Octavia pushes herself off the wall and walks over to Clarke. “You know, I don’t understand why Raven complains so much about your music. I mean that’s a good song. Definitely better than Taylor Swift.”

Clarke raises her eyebrows.

“Yeah, I walked in towards the end of you belting you belong with me _._ ”

Octavia stares at the easel, and Clarke watches as gears start to settle in place in her head and waits for Octavia to start analyzing everything. 

“You know, I haven’t heard you sing that song since junior year with the whole Lexa thing. I swear I wanted to strangle you every single time you started the song over as soon as it ended. And, this,” she wiggles her finger in front of the canvas, “the splashes and swirls of random colors is something you also haven’t done since Lexa.”

“So…when were you going to tell me you were interested in my brother?” Clarke’s jaw slacks open and her eyes widen. “What? Don’t act so surprised. I know you, Clarke. Like I bet you I can guess most of the songs you’ve been listening to.” Octavia snatches the phone from Clarke’s hand. “Probably the same ones in high school.”

Octavia begins to lists the same songs Raven had the other day before she even starts to scroll through the playlist.

After a moment, she looks at Clarke. “What Avril Lavigne and the Pussycat Dolls didn’t make the cut this time around?”

Clarke scoffs. “That’s way too juvenile.”

“And the whole playlist itself isn’t?” Octavia smirks, and Clarke can’t hold back her smile.

Octavia hands her back the phone with a sigh. “You have it bad, don’t you?”

Clarke says nothing as she stares at the canvas and possibly sees what Octavia sees. She only ever paints in splashes of colors when she has so many emotions that want to come out because she’s suppressed them for so long.

“Maybe a little,” Clarke says as she slumps against her dresser. “I swear I had no idea I felt like this.”

“You know,” Octavia starts and takes a spot next to Clarke, “you could say something to him.”

“You and Raven seem to forget he is dating someone. Someone he happens to be serious about considering he introduced her to our friends. I mean c’mon,” Clarke throws her head back, “Bellamy never brings someone around. Well, there was Gina but that lasted for a few months before—”

Clarke stops and turns her attention to Octavia. “I actually have no idea what happened. Bellamy just told me it fizzled out.”

Octavia shakes her head with a sly grin. “Of course, that’s what he told you.” Clarke’s lip part, but Octavia holds up a hand. “I’m not getting into it.”

Octavia’s phone starts to ring before either one of them can say anymore, and Clarke steps away to look at the canvas some more. She isn’t sure what she expects to unlock by staring at the splatters of colors. All she can see is something inside of her is dying to come out, but it can’t be a confession—at least not to Bellamy.

“That was Lincoln saying he’s nearby,” Octavia says, and Clarke shakes herself out of whatever daze her painting put her in.

“I’ll walk you out.”

* * *

“Look what I brought,” Wells sing songs as he walks through Clarke’s front door holding two bottles of Pink Moscato and an overnight bag draped across his body.

It was their monthly movie night, and it was absolutely mandatory. Wells had suggested they get together at least once a month as life got busier. At first, they tried to make it once a week but plans more often than not fell through. Then they tried doing it every other week, but it only seemed to work out sometimes. Finally, they came up with movie night once a month, no excuses.

“And, I believe it’s my choice this time,” Wells says as he shuffles through a drawer and pulls out a wine opener. “So, with that, we’re going to be watching,” he pulls the cork out with a loud _pop,_ “13 Going On 30.”

Clarke grabs two wine glasses from the cupboard and holds them out to Wells to fill. “You know, if you weren’t basically like my brother, we’d make the perfect rom-com movie. Best friends that can never get the time right because we can’t get our shit together. For the cherry on top, it would take one of us almost getting married to pull our head out of our asses.”

“Yeah. Well, too bad you’re my sister, and you’re already in love with someone else,” Wells says taking his filled wine glass and moves to the living room with Clarke in tow.

“I’m not in love with anybody.”

“Keep telling yourself that sweetie, but when you finally want to admit it, I’m all ears.” He sifts around Clarke’s DVD collection while Clarke settles in on the sofa taking sips of her wine.

Clarke could let everything out. How her feelings for Bellamy seem to grow every day even though she had purposely been avoiding him. His calls, for the most part, go unanswered, and his texts are replied in short responses.

She finishes her first glass in the first ten minutes of the movie, and she ignores Wells’ outstare when she reaches for the wine bottle and fills her glass almost to the rim. He’s waiting for her to spill everything.

Sometimes after a few glasses of wine, in the comfort of her apartment with her childhood best friend, her mind stops working to hide things from herself, and she’ll start spilling things left and right. It’s how Wells found out about her sort of crush on Bellamy all because Wells asked how everyone was doing and she went on a tangent about everything Bellamy, and all it took was a knowing smirk from Wells to let Clarke know she had fucked up because Wells knew without her having to say anything.

Tonight, though, Clarke told herself she isn’t going to let that happen, and there is definitely not going to be any secrets told. There’s only going to be the consumption of wine until she feels relax and fuzzy inside and enjoying a movie or movies. Nothing else.

It would have all gone according to plan if only Clarke remembered a specific song that plays at the beginning (when she was only a wine glass in) also plays towards the end of the movie. It’s a little snippet of the song, and she should have been able to hold her tongue. But she and Wells had worked their way through two and a half bottles of wine (Clarke drinking majority of it), so Clarke isn’t thinking straight, and as soon as she hears it, she can’t stop herself.

“And she’s watching him with those eyes. And she’s loving him with that body, I just know it. Yeah ‘n’ he’s holding her in his arms late, late at night. You know I wish that I had Echo’s man.”

Her eyes widen once the words left her lips, and she looks at Wells hoping he has had too much to drink only to realize he’s looking at her with his mouth gaping open and eyes matching hers.

“Did you?”

Clarke sips her wine shaking her head, and Wells grabs the remote to pause the movie.

“Clarke.” He shifts so he’s facing her instead of the TV, but Clarke refuses to do the same. Instead, she keeps sipping on her wine hoping Wells will get the message that she doesn’t want to talk. But she knows her best friend, and there’s no way he’s letting this go.

“I heard you.”

Clarke scoffs. “I was just goofing, Wells. It was nothing.”

“Clarke.” It holds the same tenacity as it did when he first said her name, and she knows there’s no dodging it.

“It’s nothing, okay?”

“Do you have a playlist?” Clarke hides behind her wine glass. “Of course, you do. You’re in deep, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Clarke groans and tossing her head back, “and I hate it. God, I hate it so much. It was a stupid crush. It was only supposed to stay a crush, but fuck.”

Clarke sits up and tucks her legs under herself as she positions herself to look at Wells.

“But you’ve seen him. With his stupid freckles and bright brown eyes. Don’t even get me started on his smile. Wells, when he smiles at me, I feel like, like he’s just seeing me. Like the world washes out, and it’s only the two of us. It’s ridiculous how completely gone I am for him. And, that’s just his looks. Bellamy…Bellamy is just a really really good guy.”

She shakes her head, more to herself than at Wells. “I didn’t always see that, but when I saw how quickly he’s willing to give everything to anyone he cares about, it was easy to fall in love with him.”

“Wait,” Wells holds out a hand, “you’re in love with him?”

“What?”

“You just said you’re in love with Bellamy. Clarke, is that really how you feel?”

Clarke thinks about lying and saying no. Saying it was a slip of the tongue because she got caught in her feelings. That saying she really really really likes Bellamy seemed longer to say than love. But she knows there’s no way Wells is going to believe that on account that she has alcohol in her system, and it’s one of the few times she’s completely open about everything.

Then she thinks she could maybe tell Wells that it doesn’t matter what she feels to get Wells to forget her latest confession because in reality, it doesn’t matter. Bellamy is dating someone, and even if he wasn’t, Clarke still wouldn’t say anything.

But this is Wells, and it’s movie night. She won’t lie to him, especially not tonight. So, she says, “yes.”

“Why, why don’t you tell him?”

“Because,” she starts then quickly stops and stares down at her glass.

“Because what Clarke?”

She doesn’t say anything. She simply grabs the remote and pressed play. Wells parts his lips, but Clarke nods towards the TV to tell him to watch.

There on the screen, she watches as Jenna races up the stairs to confess her feelings to Matt, and Clarke has seen the movie enough times to know how it’ll end.

Jenna goes in the room thinking if she told Matt how she really feels, how if he can see the real her there’s no way he could marry anyone that isn’t her, and Clarke holds her breath as she watches Matt tell Jenna he moved on and his future is with someone else. Clarke sees the heartbreak on the actress’ face and knows it’s acting for the actress, but to the character, to Jenna, the pain is real. Clarke hates that a stupid movie sets off an emotional response within because she can’t stop the tears from coming. And, she loses it when Matt says he'll always love Jenna, and Jenna tells Matt that all she wants for him to be happy. No matter how much it hurts her.

The friendship is ruined between the characters no matter how much they love each other. It’s not a risk she’s willing to take with Bellamy. She rather have him in her life and be able to laugh and joke and have the deep conversations that leads them to discuss what they would do if the end of the world came and Bellamy promising her that he wouldn’t let her die than not at all.

“Jenna and Matt end up together in the end,” Wells says sheepishly, and Clarke scoffs.

“It’s a movie,” Clarke sniffles and wipes her cheeks with the sleeves of her sweater, and Wells slides over and drapes an arm around Clarke’s shoulder.

“Do you just want to listen that pathetic playlist you made, dance around, and keep drinking wine?”

Clarke nudges him, and both of them laugh.

“Yes, I do.”

* * *

The next morning Clarke is woken up by her phone repeatedly going off with one notification after another. She reaches for her phone to silence it because the sound is doing nothing for her headache (she’s sure is brought on by too much wine), and all she wants to do is sleep this hangover away. But when she squints at her screen to get a glimpse of the time, she blinks at the 17 messages and 4 miss calls. It’s not even 8 o’clock and on a Saturday morning. Her friends aren’t typically morning people. Well, except Bellamy, but none of them are from Bellamy.

Being too hungover to deal with it, Clarke chalks it up to something that can be dealt with at a reasonable time. So, she silences her phone and turns over to go back to sleep, or she tries to but Wells burst through her door saying “sorry” over and over.

She groans into her pillow and glances at him to see the panic on his face as he clutches his phone in his hand, and Clarke slowly pushes herself up. “What are you talking about?”

“Last night. I,” he stops and starts to slap his phone against his palm. “We had a lot of wine, and we were having fun, and you know how I like to capture moments.”

He has her attention now.

“What did you do?”

“I posted pictures of us together on my Snapchat, and some videos of us singing songs from your playlist.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad.” Clarke leans her head against her headboard with her eyes closed. “If that’s all, you think we can talk about this in another hour or two? Like you said, we drank way too much wine.”

“No, Clarke,” Wells moves towards to bed and sits on the edge, “I posted videos of you _singing_ ,” he emphasizes the last word, and it’s like a lightbulb goes off.

Clarke’s eyes shot open, and she snaps her head in Wells’ direction, ignoring the spinning room. She snatches her phone and quickly goes to the app and clicks through Wells’ story until she sees herself holding an empty wine bottle by the neck, using it as a microphone, and her voice carries out from her phone.

“You know I wish I had Echo’s man. I wish I had Echo’s man. Where can I find a man like that.”

She’s so mortified that she locks her phone and throws it towards the end of her bed.

“I’m so sorry. I, I don’t know what I was thinking. Well, I wasn’t thinking. You know, too much wine.”

“Just delete it now, Wells.”

“Yeah, yeah. Of course. I should have done that to begin with. The good thing is that only of few of our friends seen it, and I’m sure,” his sentence dies out, and Clarke looks at him to see him frozen with his eyes wide in horror, and Clarke doesn’t need him to say anything else to know what he just saw. Clarke’s mentally starts cursing at Wells for recording her, and Octavia for telling Bellamy to get the fucking app on his phone.

“Delete the damn video, Wells!”

But Clarke knows it’s too late because Bellamy has seen the video of her basically saying she wants him. It’s true, but he didn’t need to know that. She’s perfectly fine with him not knowing she’s practically in love with him.

She feels her phone vibrate, and she knows it’s one of her friends to tell her they watched the video of her confessing her feelings for Bellamy and confirming some of their suspicions. Or, worse, it’s Bellamy and he’s letting her know that he watched it, but he doesn’t feel the same because he’s obviously with Echo.

She ignores it, but it starts vibrating again.

And when Wells notes that Clarke isn’t going to answer, he grabs it and clears his throat. “It’s Bellamy,” he says sheepishly, and Clarke shakes her head.

So, Wells ignores it, but it starts to ring again. Still, neither one answers it.

“That’s the third time he’s called. It’s safe to say he’s going to calling until you answer.”

Just as fast as Clarke’s phone screen died out it came back to life with light.

“It’s him. I’m going to answer.”

“No!” Clarke leaps forward, but Wells is already pushing off the bed saying “hello.”

“Yeah, she’s still sleeping right now.” Wells looks at her, and Clarke purses her lips together.

“Yeah, I know. Look, she was drunk. We both were.”

“I didn’t say that. But this is a conversation you should really be having with Clarke. I can’t be your inside man. If anything, I’m hers.” Wells smiles at Clarke.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect anything less from you. I’ll let her know. Bye.”

Wells drops the phone on the bed and grins at Clarke. “So, he’s going to be here around noon. And before you argue with me, you knew that was going to be his move. It’s why you didn’t want to answer your phone.”

“You think I can pretend I was just joking around?”

Wells shrugs. “Maybe, but it’s Bellamy.”

Clarke slithers down into her bed and pulls her blankets over her head. “Can I at least sleep for a bit before he comes?”

Wells scoffs. “We both know you aren’t. You’re going to lay in bed and overthink, so how about you get up and I make us breakfast.”

Clarke throws the blanket off with a loud huff.

“Fine, but I want extra bacon.”

“Obviously.”

* * *

Around 11:30 Wells finally leaves. Clarke thought about begging him to hide out in her room until her conversation with Bellamy was over. She had no idea what was going to happen, and the thought of it ending like 13 Going On 30 (before the wishing dust whirls around Jenna) is not something Clarke can particularly handle right now. And, it definitely has to do with her being hungover, and nothing to do with the thought she might lose him (at least that’s what Clarke is telling herself). Not that she had him, but at least he’s her friend with no complications.

Why did she have to make that stupid playlist?

She’s pacing her living room when there’s a knock. She asked Raven to stay gone to at least one. Clarke’s hoping the talk with Bellamy will take far less time than an hour, but she also knows Bellamy. The way Clarke knew he was going to want to talk after he saw the video, she knows he isn’t going to want to leave any stone unturned, so maybe an hour isn’t long enough.

Clarke holds onto the doorknob and takes a deep steady breath before opening the door, and when she does, there’s Bellamy standing in all of his glory.

“Come in.” Clarke turns around to walk into the apartment, and she can feel him close behind her.

“Do you want anything to drink? I have coffee, water, juice—”

“Wine?” Bellamy interrupts with a smirk, and Clarke tries to laugh. She knows she should think it’s a good sign that he’s joking with her, but her nerves aren’t letting her focus on anything else besides her singing and him watching her sing.

“I actually think Wells and I drank it all last night, but if you want to drink, I might have some tequila,” she says as she takes a step back towards to kitchen

“I was joking, Clarke.”

There’s a pause and a stillness in the air. Both of them know why he’s here, and both know what conversation needs to take place, but Clarke is pretty sure he’s just as uncomfortable and unsure about the whole situation as she is. 

For the first time since Clarke found out Wells posted the video, she wants to murder him. Yes, he was drunk and his inhibitions were clouded. Hers were too, but now, there is this awkward space between her and Bellamy that she’s definitely blaming Wells for.

Clarke coughs, mostly to clear the lump she feels in her throat and partly to fill the silence. It does get a pointed look from Bellamy as he runs his fingers through his hair. He probably feels just as strange as she does, but it doesn’t stop him from starting.

“I’m going to be honest and say I watched you singing…you know a certain song before Wells was able to delete it.”

Clarke sighs and drops herself onto the sofa, and Bellamy follows suit.

“And, I…wait, how do you know he deleted it?”

“I might have tried to watch it again.” Bellamy rubs the back of his neck. “Anyways, we should probably talk about it.”

“Yeah.” Clarke plays with her sleeves to try to keep herself busy and to keep herself from looking at him. “I was just joking. I was drunk. I mean you saw the video. It shows. I was singing into a wine bottle.”

“Clarke.” Bellamy rasps out.

She looks up to see him already looking at her. Clarke knows Bellamy isn’t buying it because he can read her (he’s one of the few that can). It’s one of the many things she hates about him, but one of the few things she loves. He’s always called her out on her bullshit, and he’s never allowed her to hide things, and it’s saved her from drowning in her own sorrow more times than she can count.

“Okay,” she whispers. “I do have feelings for you, and I may turn to music to deal with that. And, I may also change the lyrics just a little sometimes. Last night, it was just me having some fun with Wells and letting loose. Can you please just forget I made a fool of myself? Well, I know one of our friends probably have a copy or something, but I’ll make sure they delete it so it doesn’t get back to Echo. I don’t want to cause any problems. You’re happy and—”

“Echo and I broke up last week,” he cut her off.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. I just haven’t got around to telling everyone yet. I was just going to let everyone find out when they did.”

“So, you came over here to tell me that you two broke up?” Clarke didn’t want to look at Bellamy because she didn’t want him to see the relief on her face as she tries to bite back a smile. The news may have put her at ease, but she isn’t sure how he’s taking it. When Bellamy is hurting, he stays to himself, so it would explain him not wanting to share the news. At least, that’s what Clarke tells herself because she can’t believe anything else.

“What? No.” She sees him snap her head in her direction, and as much as she wants to meet his eyes, she still doesn’t. “Maybe…I’m not entirely sure.”

That’s what gets Clarke’s attention, and she looks at him. He’s rubbing his palms on his jeans and bouncing his leg up and down, and Clarke can’t help think it’s good that he’s just as nervous as she is. She knows were her nerves are coming from, but she can’t figure out what’s making him anxious.

“This morning I woke up to about 30 texts, majority of them from Jasper, basically shouting at me to go on Snapchat to look at Wells’ story, so I do, and I see pictures of you and him smiling then videos of you two singing.” Bellamy grins, and Clarke’s heart starts beating a little faster. It always does when Bellamy smiles.

“I thought it was funny, and I thought that’s what everyone wanted me to see. But then I get to a video of just you singing Jessie’s Girl…and you weren’t exactly singing Jessie’s girl.”

Clarke quickly looks away feeling heat rush to her cheeks. She knew Bellamy has seen it, but to hear that he actually watched her sing the stupid song drowns her in embarrassment.

“Then I realized you had no idea Echo and I aren't together anymore. No one did, and my first thought was I need to tell her that she has it wrong. It hadn’t clicked yet what it might actually mean until I got off the phone with Wells…So, okay, yeah maybe I am here to tell you I’m not with Echo anymore.” 

Clarke isn’t sure what she’s going to say to that because he knows. Bellamy now knows that she has feelings for him. Granted he probably doesn’t know how intense those feelings are. Although he has opened a perfect path for her to go down and admit everything, she isn’t going to, but the path is open. And, she’ll hate herself for it later, but for now, she’ll bite her tongue to keep her confession where it needs to stay.

Bellamy takes a deep breath and carts his fingers through his messy curls. “I guess I’m really here because I want you to know that you aren’t the only one who feels something.”

“Bell,” Clarke whispers, and Bellamy timidly reaches for Clarke’s hand. Sensing his hesitance, Clarke grabs his hand before he can reach hers. Bellamy runs his thumb over her knuckles, and Clarke lets her eyes flutter closed at the touch.

“I’ve always had feelings for you, princess.” Clarke smiles at the nickname. She can’t pinpoint when Bellamy stopped spatting the name with venom, but she knows she much rather hear the nickname laced with affection.

It’d be easy for Clarke to jump into Bellamy's arms and get wrapped up in the ecstasy of being wanted by Bellamy. To have him sweep her up in a searing kiss she’s sure she’ll feel in every inch of her body. But, at the moment, it doesn’t feel right.

“You already know I have feelings for you too.”

An all too consuming grin spreads across Bellamy's lips, and her heart skips a beat at the sight, so she only hopes it doesn’t completely disappear.

“But I think we should wait. You said yourself that you and Echo just broke up, and I don’t want to be a rebound, or to have people even think it.”

Bellamy looks down at their hands as he still caresses her knuckles before he looks up to meet Clarke’s eyes.

“Clarke, you can never be a rebound. Not when it’s always been you.”

For a second, she wants to take back everything she said about waiting because she could have him now. They could go on their first date, share their first kiss that would surely have goosebumps prickling her skin. They could be a real couple.

But Clarke can’t stop thinking about how he was one half of a couple just last week, and it solidifies Clarke's decision about waiting. If it’s real, if what he just said is real, and her having feelings for him is real, and not about her wanting someone because she can’t actually have them, then waiting won’t be a problem. (Though she is also a hundred percent certain it is real for her.)

Clarke sighs. “If you still feel the same in a few months, we’ll see what we can be.”

Bellamy switches their hand position and interlocks their fingers. “Promise?”

“I promise.” 

It’s a promise that is kept when Bellamy shows up three months later to the day to pick Clarke up for their first date. And to think, it all happened because Wells record Clarke singing a song from her stupid (slightly pathetic) playlist. 

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always an easy way to make me smile and make my day so much better! Thank you for reading!


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